Category: specifics

The Best of Coachella 2012 Weekend Two: Thom Yorke, Wallpaper, St. Vincent, Feist, David Guetta, Girl Talk, Miike Snow, Explosions in the Sky

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Another thing that made Coachella 2012 so unforgettable was the fact that we experienced it twice. Our comrade in arms Christopher R. Weingarten did a helluva job summing up the weirdness of all that (read “Why the Hell Did We Go to Coachella Weekend Two?” via SPIN) while we here at Aural Standards took the chance to see just about everything we’d missed on the first run. Below are are four favorite sets from each day. Below you’ll find a list of what we covered with excerpted bits. Click on the DAY to read full reviews at SPIN.

FRIDAY
1. Wallpaper:  when he clapped, they clapped; when he bounced, they leapt…
2. Gary Clark Jr:  Black Keys could’ve learned a thing or two about the blues…
3. Explosions in the Sky:  floating in on a pillow of harmonic resonance…
4. Ximena Sariñana:  her powerful voice and innate charm won us over…

SATURDAY
1. St. Vincent:  jagged blasts of guitar like vines of cherry bombs blowing…
2. Feist: the hulking, honking horns added a marching band-sized heft…
3. David Guetta:  even 50 feet back from the tent’s edge, it was a furnace…
4. Miike Snow:  Lykke Li coaxed the ancient viking vibes out of the music…

SUNDAY
1. Growlers: putting it down for the wastetoids, beach bums and shitheads…
2. Modeselektor & Thom Yorke: he bopped and jittered to the hyper beat…
3. Seun Kuti & Egypt 80: unceasing rhythms flagrantly defying the heat…
4. Girl Talk: taking breaks only to dance, head-bang or hype his loyal crowd…

Check out our coverage of Weekend One, plus other weirdness here.

The Weirdest of Coachella 2012: Side-Boob, Clever Boozing, Hologram Humor, Fake ‘Stache and more

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In addition to reporting on the best sets of Coachella 2012 Weekend Two, the inimitable Christopher R. Weingarten and I were tasked with documenting all the weirdness that was fit to print. Or Tweet, at least. We did the latter from @SPINfestivals, and freed the most salient bits of odd from our notebooks after each 12-hour day, usually between the delirious hours of 3 and 5 a.m. Via SPIN.

1. Friday Fieldnotes: Clever Boozing, Gary Busey’s Face, Fake Mustaches
2. Saturday Fieldnotes: Side Boob, David Hasselhoff’s Handshake, Melted Vinyl
3. Sunday Fieldnotes: Eminem’s Lip-Sync, Hologram Humor, Radiohead’s Fam


Check out our Weekend One and Weekend Two coverage as well.

Great Songs, Terrible Bands: *NSYNC Goes “Pop”

An A.V. Club reader recently asked us for our favorite songs by terrible bands. Read everyone’s responses here (it’s pretty hilarious). Mine is pasted below:

For me, it’s gotta be “Pop” by ’N Sync. Born in ’82, I was weaned on New Kids On The Block, came of age to Boyz II Men, and was just old enough to despise Lou Pearlman’s bumper crop of follow-up boy bands. It was the worst of times for mainstream music, and be they bleach-tipped or corn-rowed, those little bastards were responsible for making the radio suck. And then, in the midst of meatheaded paeans to playerdom and sappy song-sized romance novels, there came this strangely self-aware single—one boy band’s plea for respect—and weirdly, it worked. At least, it worked on me. Justin Timberlake was always a standout in the group, and it’s hard to shake the feeling that he was responsible for the track’s lyrical sass—“Why you wanna try to classify the type of thing we do?”—as well as the concept of dubbing the group’s newly aggressive sound “dirty pop,” which felt a little bit like a knife slashing at his own group’s oeuvre, not to mention those of ’N Sync’s competitors. The beatbox solo was the icing on the cake, and a preview of the unexpected credibility that awaited JT in his solo career. Don’t you ever wonder why his music gets you high? This is the fizzy foundation of the Justin Timberlake we know and, yes, love today.

Review: ‘The OF Tape Vol. 2’ Proves That the Future is Still Odd (Also: That Earl Sweatshirt is Alive)

Hype is a fickle beast and Odd Future rides it like a pack of rodeo clowns. The Angeleno misfit rap crew seems to understand that the arena wants to see its champions knocked around a bit, wants to jeer before it cheers—that, or the group’s “kill people, burn shit, fuck school” nihilism is exactly what’s needed in the two-thousand-teens. Regardless, their new posse album, The OF Tape Vol. 2, reminds us of what’s so great about these fuckers. Read at The A.V. Club.